1. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE BBI 3207

2. Metre and Rhythm In order to understand English metre, it is first necessary to understand the two aspects of English words that are controlled by metres: i.syllables, ii.relative stress on syllables. Syllables can be thought of as ‘beats’ in speech, e.g. ‘umbrellas’ = three beats In English, a syllable is usually based around a vowel or diphthong (two vowels spoken together) or triphthong (three together), which is called the ‘nucleus’ of the syllable.

3. Monosyllables 1 syllable: in, up, man, heart, score, feet, words, smelt, death, wheat Polysyllables 2 syllables: ready, pieces, upset, apple, without, ending, fearsome 3 syllables: readiness, undertake, manicure, randomness 4 syllables: monstrosity, repulsiveness, menagerie, telescopic 5 syllables: unreality, fortification, structuralism, nationality 6 syllables: encyclopaedia, psychotherapeutic 7 syllables: environmentalism, autobiographical

4. Organise the following sentences into syllables The rain is raining all around It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea. (Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘Rain’)

6. Stress on syllables Some syllables carry greater ‘stress’ than others The syllable with greater stress is experienced as more prominent (e.g. louder). In dictionaries of English the syllable with greatest stress relative to other syllables has an inverted comma put before it in its representation of pronunciation e. g. r’eady, r’eadiness, monstr’osity, unre’ality, encyclop’aedia, environm’entalism.

7. Stress on syllables Stress is also manifested as higher pitch and greater length, and these may also be audible on the stressed syllables in addition to greater loudness. Syllables with very weak or no stress are often reduced in ‘vowel quality’ such that they are no longer clearly distinguishable from other vowels and may also be shortened.

8. Underline the stressed syllables

10. Rhythm The regular periodic beat. “a unit which is usually larger than the syllable, and which contains one stressed syllable, marking the recurrent beat, and optionally, a number of unstressed syllables” (Leech (1969): 105). It may involve a succession of weak and strong stress; long and short; high and low and other contrasting segments of utterance. Rhythm can occur in prose as well as in verse.

11. Meter (Rhythm) A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Meter occurs when the stressed and unstressed syllables of the words in a poem are arranged in a repeating pattern. When poets write in meter, they count out the number of stressed (strong) syllables and unstressed (weak) syllables for each line. A measurable, patterned unit (a set) of poetic rhythm is called a “foot.”

12. Meter Meter is a type of rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables organized into feet, aka patterns. It is determined by the character and number of syllables in a line. Meter is also dependent on the way the syllables are accented. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”) The above line consists of ten syllables that show a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables: 1 st syllable unstressed, 2 nd syllable stressed, 3 rd syllable unstressed…. 10 th syllable. The unstressed syllable is underlined while the stressed syllable is in bold (Cumming 2006).

13. Foot – stress patterning A foot is made up of a pair of unstressed and stressed syllables. Thus, the above line altogether contains five feet (see below): 1 2 3 4 5 Shall I..|.. compare |.. thee to..|.. a sum..|.. mer’s day?

14. 14 Stress patterning Iamb: 2 syllables, unstressed + stressed Trochee: 2 syllables, stressed + unstressed Anapest: 3 syllables, 2 unstressed + stressed Dactyl: 3 syllables, stressed + 2 unstressed Spondee: 2 stressed syllables Pyrrhic: 2 unstressed syllables

15. 5 types of Feet Iamb (Iambic) Unstressed + StressedTwo Syllables "To be or not to be" (Shakespeare’s Hamlet) Trochee (Trochaic) Stressed + UnstressedTwo Syllables "Double, double, toil and trouble." (Shakespeare’s Macbeth) Spondee (Spondaic) Stressed + StressedTwo Syllables “heartbreak” Anapest (Anapestic) Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed Three Syllables "I arise and unbuild it again" (Shelley's Cloud) Dactyl (Dactylic Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed Three Syllables “Openly”

16. Basic Foot Rhythms Name: Iambic Pattern: unstressed, stressed (U/) U / U / U / U / U / But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? Name: Trochaic Pattern: stressed, unstressed (/ U) / U / U / U / U Double, double toil and trouble Name: Anapestic Pattern: unstressed, unstressed, stressed (U U /) U U / U U / U U / And the sound of a voice that is still Name: Dactylic Pattern: stressed, unstressed, unstressed (/ U U) / U U / U U Take her up tenderly

17. 17 Metrical patterning Dimetre: 2 feet Trimetre: 3 feet Tetrametre: 4 feet Pentametre: 5 feet Hexametre: 6 feet Heptametre: 7 feet Octametre: 8 feet

18. Meter depends on the type of foot and the number of feet in a line. Below are the types of meter and the line length: MonometerOne Foot DimeterTwo Feet TrimeterThree Feet TetrameterFour Feet PentameterFive Feet HexameterSix Feet HeptameterSeven Feet OctameterEight Feet 1 2 3 4 5 Shall I.. |.. compare |.. thee to.. |.. a sum.. |.. mer’s day ?

19. Line Length One foot: Monometer Two feet: Dimeter Three feet: Trimeter Four feet: Tetrameter Five feet: Pentameter Six feet: Hexameter Seven feet: Heptameter Eight feet: Octameter U / U / U / U / U / But soft, | what light | through yon | der win | dow breaks? 1 2 3 4 5 5 feet = Pentameter Therefore, this line is iambic pentameter U U / U U / U U / And the sound | of a voice | that is still 1 2 3 3 feet = Trimeter Therefore, this line is Anapestic Trimeter

20. Practice: Here's an example of how a line by Shakespeare is divided into feet: from FAIR | est CREA | tures WE | deSIRE | inCREASE

21. Trochaic Foot Two syllables, initial is head The bracketed asterisk is now the initial asterisk in each foot: This is the head, the syllable most likely to be stressed (Christina Rossetti, ‘In the bleak mid-winter’, 1872)

22. In these lines we see something new: a foot at one end of the line contains one syllable when it might be expected to contain two. This is called ‘catalexis’; it is one of the permitted variations in English, where a foot can be ‘short’ at one end of the line. In trochaic metres the short foot comes at the end of the line (in iambic metres it comes at the beginning).

23. Anapaestic Foot Three syllables, final is head These are three-syllable feet in which the final syllable tends to be stressed - The stressed syllables tend to be three syllables apart Three-syllable feet (triplets) with a final head are anapaests, so this is in an anapaestic metre (actually anapaestic tetrameter because there are four anapaestic feet in each line).

24. Anapaestic Foot Three syllables, final is head Note that the initial foot in the line is sometimes one syllable, sometimes two and sometimes three, thus showing different possibilities for catalexis, which thus permits variation between lines. Metres are rigid systems that nevertheless open up various ‘loopholes’ for variation (in length or rhythm) in this way.

25. Anapaestic Foot Three syllables, final is head While there is a general tendency for the head of the foot to be stressed, other syllables can sometimes be stressed as well, as ‘every’ in the second line shows.

26. Dactylitic Foot Three syllables, initial is head In these lines, which are in dactylic dimeter (two dactylic feet in each line), the final foot in the line sometimes falls short. We can tell that these are dactyls, first because the stressed syllables tend to fall three syllables apart, and second because the stressed syllable comes first.

27. Determine the metre (type of foot and number of feet) for the following lines The rain is raining all around It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea.

28. Determine the metre (type of foot and number of feet) for the following lines The rain is raining all around It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea. iambic tetrameter iambic trimeter iambic tetrameter iambic trimeter

29. THANK YOU